창작과 비평

"Surely you remember exactly what happened that day. Someone says they saw a little girl wearing a yellow kindergarten uniform crying as it walked past their store down the road. They say they saw it right before the fire."
Miss Kim did not even lift her head. If the woman remembered correctly Miss Kim would be twenty-four now. Even to a twenty-four year old woman the fire must have left quite a scar.
Miss Kim's lower lip began to shake. "I'm not sure what it is you're trying to say…"
"We're saying that right before the fire broke out one of the children left the camp and went off by itself!"
Miss Kim sat up in her seat, surprised by what she was hearing. "That can't be right. I definitely checked the children before going to bed. They were definitely all…" She stopped mid sentence. Then she shook her shoulders. One of the mothers moved closer.
"We're all out of tears."
Miss Kim continued. "The campfire ended at about ten o'clock and we all went back to our rooms. All of the children were there, I'm sure. Please believe me."
It would have taken a child a little over two hours to walk the distance of the unpaved road that had taken around thirty minutes by bus. It would have needed to leave the campground at least close to nine to walk by the store at eleven. The campfire was still going on at that hour. Amidst the fireworks and the shouting of the children, any of them could have left without anyone noticing. The woman's throat was feeling dry.
"Are you positive my daughter was there? Are you sure?"
Miss Kim shook her head firmly. "Yes, I'm sure. She was sitting next to Jihye. Her ponytail bauble was bothering her so I helped her take it off."
The girl Miss Kim was remembering was not the woman's daughter. Her hair had never been long enough to need one of those twin bead ponytail holders.
"You're thinking of a different child," she said. "Mine never wore hair baubles."
Miss Kim had stopped crying and was biting her lip. Gyeonghui's mother was sitting across from her.
"See. You're not sure about anything," she shouted suddenly. "It's obvious you wouldn't have known if ten of them were missing."
Miss Kim was now in a bind and stumbled over her words. "I'm sure they were all there. Really. I know how you all feel. It hasn't been easy for me, either. But they were definitely all in bed where they were supposed to be. Of course I wish just one of them were still alive."
The woman's daughter had been an ordinary child. Just as she was in pictures, you barely noticed her in real life. A child like hers could easily have walked off quietly without anyone noticing. Miss Kim suddenly hit her hand on her knee as something occurred to her.
"I do have something. We recorded the campfire time on video. I have the tape."
A bonfire was set up on the beach. Children could be heard laughing all around. You could hear the regular rhythm of the tiny waves hitting the sand. The children stood around the pile of wood giggling, yawning, and playing with their neighbor, or looking around in anticipation of the fire that was about to begin. The children jumped up and down in excitement as the flames shot up into the air, igniting the bonfire. The children began dancing when they heard cheerful music, shaking their rear ends towards the fire.
Next the camera panned along the faces of children wearing face paint like little American Indians. They wore party hats on their heads. The other mothers broke out in tears when they saw their children, but the woman's daughter was nowhere to be seen. As usual she had either been passed over too quickly or she was standing somewhere out of range of the camera.
When the bonfire began to burn out it was time for candles. Next the view was filled with candles being held up in the darkness. The children stood still so as not to let their candles go out. The scene stopped there and the next thing you saw were the faces of the children pushing at each other on their way into the facilities. It was then that the woman saw her daughter among the others. She passed by in a flash but it was her daughter for sure. As usual all the camera got was the side of her face. The woman was more accustomed to seeing her daughter's face from the side anyway. Her eyes looked very tired. She left the frame as she fell forward, pushed by the children behind her. As she fell, the woman noticed a stain on the chest of her yellow uniform. There was no need to rewind the video to check for sure. It was definitely her daughter. Then she remembered the stain. She had completely forgotten it over the past year.